Waterside Natural History Society walk round Ladycross
Of all the shades of green the lime green of a fresh beech leaf must be one of the finest. The beech tree bursts into life every spring with masses of stored up energy to produce perfect leaves in their thousands. Bud scales are showered down like brown snowflakes onto the ground and into the lunch of the unwary traveller. Sometimes we take for granted the ordinary sights of nature looking at the bluebells on the ground instead of the green of the beech trees above but on our walk round Ladycross the green was all too evident and a pleasure to see. Beech trees are a good place to see the St. Marks fly which is so called because it is meant to appear on St. Marks day the 25th of April. They are black flies with long legs dangling below the body, flying slowly around seemingly oblivious to all predators, hoping for protection in their vast numbers.
We started our walk from the Hawkhill car park on the B3055 road between Beaulieu and Brockenhurst. The idea was to walk in an anticlockwise circle of about six miles taking in the Hawkhill and Frame Heath inclosures before walking alongside Ladycross Lodge to the campsite on Lodge Heath and the old airfield on Beaulieu heath.
The trees were well spaced Scots pines at first but soon changed to Beech and Oak as we progressed through Hawkhill inclosure. We met a surprisingly large number of people on our walk in the woodland, mostly groups of young people with rucksacks, and cyclists on an organised event. It is good to see young people out in the countryside instead of stuck indoors in front of a computer but it was difficult to tell if they were actually enjoying themselves.
Buzzards were occasionally seen either flying through the trees or way up in the sky above but the Red Kite with its characteristic forked tail is beginning to be seen in the area. They are certainly an impressive sight but you can’t help feeling apprehensive for the smaller birds that provide a ready meal. A herd of fallow deer ran across our path at one point but it was generally too busy a day to see them at rest.
The original object of our walk was to look for open meadow within the woodland in order to check for wild flowers but a combination of the late spring and lack of grassland meant we were somewhat unsuccessful in our efforts. There were quite a number of flowers by the side of the forest paths however and the most common was the Dog Violet. Dog violet is so named because it has no smell and was deemed suitable only for ‘dogs’. The Violet does not occur in swathes like the Bluebell but instead sprinkles itself innocuously over the grass verges leaving room for the white of the wild strawberry and yellow of the tormentil. Lousewort adds a touch of pink whilst the green of the wood spurge adds depth to the colours.
Walking through the woodland was a pleasant experience from the rambling point of view but it was not until we came out onto the open scrub of the old airfield that we noticed anything interesting in the nature field. The mature gorse bushes, in flower at the moment, are a favourite habitat for the Dartford Warbler and we were able to watch a male bird for some time as it went about its business of gathering food. It was assumed that the harsh winter might have killed off some of these birds but they seem to be still thriving in the New Forest.
The next thing we noticed were a group of Green Winged Orchids at the side of the old runways. These orchids have unspotted leaves that come to a hooded tip some of which cling to the stem. The flowers have a broad lower lip and the upper lip is folded over in the form of a hood. This lip has lines running towards the tip and if you look closely under the hood the gaps between the lines are green which gives the orchid its name. The green wings are not obvious however and they may be taken for early purple orchids at a casual glance.
The walk itself was much the same as any to be found in the New Forest but if you take an interest in your surroundings it can turn out to be a rewarding day out at any time of the year.
